Editorials
CONTENTS Volume CXVIII, Number 4 Correspondence l 14 Editorials 115 The road not taken: Robert E. White 118 First hearts, then minds: Mary Lou Kownacki 119 Call 202-456-1111, ask for...
...He does not notice that the problem with what he calls "pre-Vatican II evangelism" is not that Christians of rival varieties were willing to die for their faith...
...Buchanan applauded the archbishop's sour thoughts but "There are no priests, bishops, or cardinals up here...
...in fact, given the coverage, it is surprising how little real information we have...
...Shamir, who will always find reasons to postpone steps toward a settlement, should not deter the Bush administration, the Congress, and the American people from pressing the Israeli people to seek leaders who will take such steps...
...If bridges, roads, power stations, water and sewerage systems are being bombed as legitimate military targets, how long can it be before there are further effects on civilians, both from bombs and from epidemics, starvation, "Everybody loses...
...When a religion of love becomes the occasion for its adherents to kill one another, isn't the sight repugnant rather than stirring...
...Without the money, 22 Februacv1991:l17...
...Whether the war is finally seen to be just or unjust, its political fall-out may well make it seem imprudent and ill-advised...
...As the war effort unfolds, complexity and ambiguity are commonly eclipsed by the solidification of public opinion, usually positive, about its purpose...
...And then there is the United States...
...Buchanan is unfortunately so engorged with this imagery that he is in no shape to answer his own question...
...military claims of its intentions...
...trade credits--is shameful evidence of our own and many other nations' complicity in arming tyrants whom we would make our friend...
...That it is unlikely to move Mr...
...For some reason the document provoked Roman Catholic Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick of Newark to wonder about the state of ecumenism...
...Hussein's subsequent tactics--pouring oil into the Gulf, hitting Israel with Scud missiles, and his refusing in the face of defeat to negotiate a settlement--support that assessment...
...10038...
...nobody raises a caveat or problem or scenario that one has not already considered...
...The editors of Commonweal are no exception...
...he asked...
...Normal civilian life hardly seems possible in the cities of Baghdad and Basra...
...in editorials, generally supportive, but with caveats and questions...
...After four weeks there are conflicting assessments about the bombing's impact on Saddam Hussein's war-making capacity, but his military machine still appears to be in fighting order...
...George Bush claims to have known otherwise: assessments weighing the effect of sanctions and of negotiations, coupled with what was known about Saddam Hussein's readiness to sacrifice his last soldier--and last citizen finally seem to have led the administration to the conclusion that the embargo would not work (see Robert White, page 118...
...New York, N.Y...
...B. is launching syndicated Scuds at Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong of Newark...
...We doubt that case can be made...
...The war in the Gulf is now a month old--brief in real time, but of long durde in the habitually short attention span of most Americans...
...When it breaks out it is usually with mixed motives, multiple goals, and grandiose claims about outcomes...
...Bishop Spong is something of a Late Edwardian figure, fearlessly leading "modern Christians" into battle against Victorianism with minimal attention to the several cultural eras that have intervened...
...General William Tecumseh Sherman, who cut a swatch of desolation through Georgia during our own Civil War, knew whereof he spoke...
...The world rightly admires Israeli restraint in face of the Scud missile attacks, but Israelis know better than anyone how short-lived that admiration will be when the time comes to shape a regional peace...
...What more can be said...
...Indeed, our experience is that many people in these conversations have held most of these opinions--some at one time and some at another---over the past seven months...
...Nonetheless, there is the press for a ground war in which tens of thousands of American and Iraqi soldiers could be maimed or killed...
...COMMONWEALI Engulfed ar is at best barbarism...
...Paul was a clean-cut Olympic boxing and track champion who dated widely before entering the Jesuits...
...Now the debate is about the air war and collateral damage, about a ground war and military casualties, about war goals and the future of Iraq, and about political outcomes and the future of the whole Middle East...
...We are left then with the question of the air war, a possible ground war, and proportionality, which Bryan Hehir also takes up in his column (page 125...
...Display advertising correspondence should be sent to Ruth E. Taylor, 11 Graffam Rd., So...
...If there is an "Arab nation" that transcends current borders, this is the time for moderate and wealthy Arab governments to embody it by amelior~.ting the economic divisions between have and have-not countries...
...The bombardment of Iraq and Kuwait goes on, with what civilian fatalities we do not know...
...POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Commonweal, 15 Dutch St...
...Indeed Mr...
...The defeat of Saddam Hussein's offensive military capabilities will be the most immediate and important factor in restoring a regional balance...
...are so gauche as to be embarrassing...
...Buchanan's case, of course, we wouldn't count on it...
...We are not ready with George Bush to declare this a just war...
...Paul was a self-loathing homosexual...
...These issues bring us directly to the political background of the war and its possible political outcome...
...The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York runs its schools with only thirty-five pencil pushers...
...The formidable amount of weaponry the allies currently face in Kuwait~irect courtesy of France, the Soviet Union, Germany, China, and Brazil, and indirect courtesy of U.S...
...They are also less than many pre-war estimates...
...Peter M. Flanigan, a director of the "I Have a Dream" college scholarship foundation, noted this provocative discrepancy in praising the academic success of Catholic schools in a February 12 Wall Street Journal column...
...But if the ground war is brief, if Hussein's war machine turns out to be a Potemkin army, ifU.S, forces are quickly withdrawn after Kuwait is liberated, then perhaps the means will prove commensurable with the end...
...Perhaps this national conversation explains the relatively civil and somber tone of the debate, which William Lee Miller analyzes on page 122...
...ECUMENICAL FUNDRAISING New YorkCity's beleaguered public school system employs seven thousand bureaucrats...
...Our readiness to straighten out the rest of the world when our own house lies in such disorder is equally self-destructive...
...It is the sort of knowing that philosophers, writers, and editors usually do not possess...
...Unfortunately, Bishop Spong is a man who complains of St...
...and in the minds of the American people, who mostly would like the war to end as quickly as possible...
...Nor do we agree that, left to itself, the Arab world would have been able to negotiate a stable settlement with Saddam Hussein, and that but for American intervention, matters would have been peacefully resolved...
...we're just one happy laity...
...Goldberg reports recent political moves by the Likud government that point to continuing intransigence at least on the part of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir...
...in TV interviews with experts, some who oppose and some who favor (and among them, some who switched on January 16...
...Admittedly, war is complex and ambiguous...
...On page 123, J.J...
...Their ruminations and distinctions can often seem little more than efforts to hide from the truth of what is actually going on...
...It's how you lose that counts...
...The U.S...
...ET CETERA WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE Some while ago when hostilities broke out between A. M. Rosenthal the Righteous and Patrick J. Buchanan the Belligerent, Commonweal (October 26, 1990) declared a policy of Armed Neutrality...
...Portland, Me...
...Flanigan urges New Yorkers of every inclination and allegiance to support the archdiocese's $100 million school fundraising campaign...
...But neither do we see evidence that it is manifestly unjust...
...CONTENTS Volume CXVIII, Number 4 Correspondence l 14 Editorials 115 The road not taken: Robert E. White 118 First hearts, then minds: Mary Lou Kownacki 119 Call 202-456-1111, ask for George: Jack Gilroy 120 A war about America: George Weigel 121 Watching our words: William Lee Miller 122 Doves & hawks together: J. J. Goldberg 123 The moral calculus of war: J. Bryan Hehir 125 The unfinished boy & his pain: David Toolan 127 Poetry: Mary Rudbeck Stanko 131 Stage: Gerald Weales 132 Screen: Richard Alleva 133 Media: Frank McConnell 134 I BOOKS Brave New Families: Christopher Lasch 136 Warrenpoint: Elizabeth Shannon 138 Pledging Allegiance: Wilson Carey McWilliams 139 Then and Now: Nicholas R. Clifford 141 STAFF Editor: Margaret O'Brien Steinfels Managing Editor: Patrick Jordan Associate Editor: Paul Baumann Production Editor: Patricia Mazzola Senior Writer: Robert G. Hoyt Movies: Richard Alleva Stage: Gerald Weales Poetry: Rosemary Deen Columnists: John Garvey, J. Bryan Hehir, Abigail McCarthy, David R. Carlin, Jr...
...But they are beyond what would make a calculation about proportionality easy...
...But even that is not clear...
...Even so, complex thoughts and ambiguous feelings about this war persist: in conversations, casual and serious...
...It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation...
...10038...
...We suspect General Norman Schwarzkopf, now commanding U.S...
...Quoting John Crowe Ransom, he ended with a denunciation of"the spiritual flaccidity of modem religion" and a paean to a "virile" God...
...We do not agree with those opposed to the war who argue that American military intervention in the Gulf is immoral in itself...
...forces in the Gulf and a veteran of Vietnam, also knows...
...Staff: Harriette Balsky, Carmen Alava, Pamela Quatse Advertising Manager: Ruth E. Taylor Publisher: Edward S. Skillin Commonweal, [ISSN 0010-3330] A Review of Public Affairs, Religion, Literature, and the Arts, is published biweekly, except monthly Christmas, New Year's and July and August, by Commonweal Foundation, 15 Dutch St., New York, N.Y...
...We do not see how this potential carnage in Kuwait---civilian and military---could be proportionate to the war's stated goal, the liberation of Kuwait and the restoration of its lawful government...
...04106 (207) 799-4387, classified advertising correspondence to 15 Dutch St...
...In the contest pitting barroom brawler against the aging flower child of the Episcopal hierarchy, perhaps we should take the side of the latter...
...And yet this does not relieve us--or others of saying what we are able, if only tentatively...
...Would another month of bombing materially alter this...
...Bishop Spong's latest bout with notoriety arises from his contention that St...
...Matthew that "He did not possess the level of scholarship available to us today" and that some of his "literal details...
...At this juncture, there can hardly be any analysis, judgment, or scenario that has not been aired in the millions of conversations that have gone on in homes, offices, and classrooms...
...his approval ratings are up...
...Then on January 16, we did go to war...
...It is also the moment for an honest scrutiny by the Arabs of the interplay between history (imperialist and otherwise), Islam, and the self-destructive tendencies of Arab politics...
...Opinion polls show that the public has rallied to George Bush...
...In Mr...
...Telephone: (212) 732-0800...
...The problem was that there had to be Christians at the other end of the executioner's axe who were willing to kill for their faith...
...The debate that went on from August 2 to January 15 in the media, at the UN, in Washington, among ordinary Americans, and finally in Congress has made millions of people familiar with the pros and cons of sending troops to Saudi Arabia, of the UN resolutions and the sanctions against Iraq, of going to war--or not...
...Buchanan waxed nostalgic over the fact that "four hundred years ago, men and women went to their deaths over differences between the Church of England and the Church of Rome...
...And it is here that perhaps the American war effort will finally have its teal test...
...Constant TV coverage encourages people to think that they know more about this war than they do...
...Perhaps from that there can emerge the muchacclaimed Arab solution to Arab problems...
...It is impossible to imagine that it would not...
...That is where our attention, along with many others, has been focused...
...That should give courage and comfort to Israel...
...116: Commonweal Another source of confidence-building would be a thoroughgoing agreement to limit arms and arms sales in the region...
...Before January 16, we along with many others, argued that sanctions and further diplomatic efforts needed more time...
...More Americans have become conversant with the ins and outs of just-war theory 22 February 1991:115 than Grotius or Aquinas ever dreamed of...
...The Bush administration, the Congress, and the American people did not hesitate to stand up to Saddam Hussein...
...Clearly Arab recognition of Israel along with the end of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the creation ofa Palestinian state would contribute greatly to long-term stability and peace in the region...
...After issuing suspiciously low figures for weeks, Iraqi sources have increased them ten-fold to between five and six thousand...
...Those many "ifs" and many unknowns leave us in a state of agnosticism...
...Given the number of combat sorties, those figures could substantiate U.S...
...We take this reality to heart: what we do not know about war, in particular what we do not know about this war, is considerable...
...War is hell...
...regretted that he had not taken an eye for an eye and called for defections from the Episcopal church...
...Still, this is the most widely scrutinized and discussed war the United States has ever fought...
...We see no reason to change our stance now that Mr...
...Add the numbers of injured and homeless...
...But unless Saddam Hussein withdraws from Kuwait, unless there are major defections from among the Iraqi forces, unless there is a pause in the air war to allow a negotiated settlement, there is almost certainly going to be a ground war--as we write (February 12) that seems very certain, if"not imminent," as Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney said on his return to Washington...
...This has upset Mr...
...Given enough will and vision, the chief players in this war may be able to make the first steps toward region-wide security, stability, and fairness...
...dehydration, and accidents...
...Buchanan, who has always known that St...
...The debate that took years to emerge in Vietnam and Central America sprang up almost instantaneously in the case of the Gulf...
...government insists that it is taking every precaution to avoid civilian casualties while it remains conveniently unable to provide even the slightest estimate of how many there may be...
...The somberness with which the nation contemplates yet another war must finally end in some honest scrutiny of ourselves...
...Doesn't "preVatican II evangelism seem somewhat more impressive" than "post-Vatican II ecumenism...
...One such hand grenade was a draft report, presented at Bishop Spong's diocesan convention, calling for Catholic women to defect from their church...
...If the prelate is an innocent, he is the kind who cheerfully passes you a hand grenade with the pin pulled out...
Vol. 118 • February 1991 • No. 4
